Spotify and record companies reach an agreement to place sponsored songs in the playlists

Are you a free user of Spotify? Then you may soon find yourself with nasty surprises while listening to music. We are talking about songs that appear in the lists that you follow, and that you had not put there.

Apparently all this comes from an agreement between Spotify and the record companies, as reflected in Engadget. For now this feature is in trial period, and from the musical streaming platform insists that you can choose not to listen to them if you do not want to.

The feature could catch unsuspecting many non-premium users, so it pays to be aware. If finally the test results are what the company deems appropriate, then the function will become definitive.

It could be understood as an update of the radio formula. At one time (when vinyl records were still used and the physical format was generally the most used medium), record labels paid the radios and DJs who worked on them to punch certain songs of certain artists more frequently.

With this kind of modernization of the AOR there will be no legal problems depending on the medium, since sponsored music will be labeled as such and will be purely optional. However, you will share a feature with previous years: you will hear music that you probably do not care about or that you would not look for on your own.

Spotify could face harsh criticism from users if they finally decide to deploy sponsored songs, but it makes perfect sense to try to get an extra source of monetization.

Although the number of paid users has improved over time, a large percentage of Spotify users do not pay for a subscription. Using these sponsored songs could better complement the advertising revenue that the platform has, thanks to free users.

Unsurprisingly, paying users will not have to worry about which songs they do not want to hear, appear in their playlists.